It matters where you sit (part 2)

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
Fatal attraction is holding me fast,
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Back in October, I said it matters where you sit on a plane with respect to noise (see here).

Bombardier makes a regional jet, the CRJ700, with twin engines at the rear. So, more precisely, it matters where you sit in relation to the engines.

If you're someone who can sleep on a flight, it probably doesn't matter.

However, I was desperately jetlagged on the way back from Qatar (a brutal 10 hour timezone difference), tired but wired, utterly unable to sleep, and even listening to that mellow Pink Floyd album A Momentary Lapse of Reason (from which those lyrics above are drawn) couldn't help me, I took the opportunity to pace the narrow aisle with Etymotics' free iPhone App, which has a sound pressure meter. I took samples every two seats (which must have drawn strange glances from my fellow passengers) and in the only toilet at the back. Here are the results:

There is a large 20dB difference in sound pressure level depending on where you sit. The noise right at the back is seriously deafening, plus I notice the last row of seats are right up against the wall and do not recline. Do not take row 17.

High-end in-ear monitors: JH Audio JH16 Pro

I've been listening to my brand-new pair of in-ear monitors for a couple of weeks now. They're the JH16 Pros I ordered at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest show.

They're extremely pricey and are custom-molded for my ears (done open-mouthed right at the show). In partial mitigation, they are complex, having 8 drivers for each ear, and the sound quality (especially the bass) simply blow the custom-molded Etymotics but bass-light Hf3s that I had before out of the water.

You really don't feel you're missing anything with such tiny devices. It's as good as the best full-sized headphones. It's significantly better than my car audio system. I don't feel like listening to the Etymotics anymore. The difference is night-and-day and readily apparent from the first moments. I simply enjoy my music more with the JH16 Pros.

(Note: believe it or not, they're not quite top-of-the-line for JH Audio. There is a brand-new fancier version of the JH16 Pro with an external box containing a DSP crossover and amplifier for maybe $600 more. It's called the JH-3A. But it's not as portable obviously.)

I bought it for use on trips: long flights and all that, so sound isolation is also important to me: hence, the custom ear-molds. I am listening to music (Apple lossless) out of my iPhone 4.

I'm told the sound can be further improved by bypassing the iPhone's inexpensive internal DAC (Digital to Analog converter) and headphone amplifier for an outboard solution: in other words, using the iPhone as a digital transport only and outsourcing digital-to-analog conversion and amplification to a (presumably, higher-quality) external box or boxes.

Two solutions exist at the moment to take the digital output from an iDevice: the Fostex HP-P1 which contains a 32 bit DAC and a headphone amplifier in one box, or the Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo DAC converter feeding another box such as the ALO Continental vacuum tube-based headphone amplifier.

The cost to the wallet is another $750-$1200 depending on the solution, plus you sacrifice portability since you need to carry along one or two other boxes along with my iPhone that also need to be battery powered and charged. The upside is that you get the last 10% of sound quality out of the JH16 Pros.

Maybe I'll go the outboard DAC and separate amplifier solution at a later date, but right now I'm amazed at and very happy with the great sound quality I'm getting from such a tiny speaker system.

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest

This Sunday I attended the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, an exhibition for audio or hi-fi geeks in Denver CO.

I'm not a hi-fi geek by any means. First of all, I'm slightly deaf in my right ear since childhood. And the last time I bought speakers was when I was 17 years old. That's well over a quarter-century ago.

I still own my teenage years speakers (Celestion SL6s). They work fine, but I thought I should think about getting a new pair.

Plus, I'd just gotten a pair of Etymotics earphones with custom molds for my ears (see earlier post here).

At the end of that post, I said: "Anyway, this is my introduction to the world of custom-fit earphones. One can spend $1000+ on higher quality ear canal phones."

Well, on that note I ventured over to the JH Audio booth. Jerry Harvey introduced himself. So I listened to their top-of-the-line earphones. I A-B'ed the (universal fit) JH16 Pro earphones back-to-back against my custom-fit Etymotics that I had with me. I used the iPod section of my iPhone for source.

And damn... the JH16 Pros were obviously way better right from the start. In particular, they have real bass. They were offering $100 off as a show special and custom molding done right there for free.

These guys make it all way too easy. I was sold.

So I'm looking forward to my custom-molded JH16 Pros (right ear in transparent red, and left in transparent black); they should arrive in about a week.

Note that they take open mouth ear molds: hence, the picture of me biting on a polystyrene peanut. I understand they fit tighter that way because of the way the jaw moves. Hmm, I'd just spent $100 getting custom ear molds for my Etymotics, and the audiologist there didn't make open-mouth ear impressions for me.

I borrowed the JH16 Pros I was trying out and went over to the Ray Samuels Audio booth to listen to their battery-powered portable headphone amp, called the The Shadow. It would fit between the iPhone line-out and the earphones. Hmm, I'm afraid I'm going to be needing that as well. (Good job there was no show special, otherwise I might have ordered one on the spot.)

I also listened to Stax SR-009 full size headphones driven by Woo Audio amplification. Electrostatics. It sounded fantastic. The total price was about $10,000. Man, for a headphone system? Arrgh.

I wandered around the other exhibits in a bit of a daze for the rest of the day until the 4pm closing time: remember, I'm actually looking for something to replace my current speakers.

There was way too much to see (actually, listen to) in one day. Plus my ears get fatigued after a while. Unfortunately, the only two I really liked were the Wilson Sashas (at $30,000) and the Sonus Faber Amati (at $36,500). The Vandersteen 7s were $50,000. I heard them in two different rooms but found them a bit too forward, maybe it was the music being played in each case. Still John Lee Hooker sounded great. The Sony SS-AR1 ($27,000) were great with Joni Mitchell, and I'm not a fan of hers. I guess I could live with the Orion 4.0s; $14,000 but less if you build them from a kit yourself.

If you thought $1100 (JH16 Pro) was expensive for iPod earbud replacements, well it appears great speakers are totally unaffordable. Oh well.

Of course, then you need honking big amplifiers as well. The whole nine yards. And it starts to look like this:

Totally ridiculous. Who buys this stuff? I give up on the idea of replacing my speakers with something way better.

Hopping back in the Hyundai Elantra from Enterprise, costing only $18.21 for one day's rental, my thoughts returned to normality. Also, having turned down the optional GPS, I navigated back to Denver International Airport (DIA) using my iPhone wedged next to the speedometer:

Arriving back at the airport, I happened by the New Belgium Hub in Terminal 2.

I immediately recognized it of course, having passed through Denver during my trip to Mons, Belgium earlier this year.
(See my post here).

This time though, time was on my side, so I had a few sips of beer while watching the sunset over DIA.

Not bad, not bad at all.

It matters where you sit

It matters where you sit on a plane.

I got a chance to try my custom in-ear Etymotics phones on a flight recently. (See my earphones here).

I was on a CRJ700. Etymotics has a free iPhone App that allows you to hear and talk to people via the iPhone mic without having to wriggle the earphones out of your ears. Obviously, your earphones have to be plugged into the iPhone for this to work.

The App also has a nifty sound pressure level (SPL) meter. Being a nerd, I measured the noise during the flight at three locations inside the aircraft.

#1 was my seat (row 5) in Economy Plus.

#2 was most of the way down the aisle:

And #3 was next to the bathroom at the back, next to where the engines on the CRJ700 are.

Custom-fit Etymotic Research earphones

[Updated twice.]
Like many travelers on today's increasingly jam-packed flights, I like to block out external sounds.

You know what I'm referring to: engine noise, babies crying, people snoring, apologies from the captain about delays, duty free announcements etc.. In other words, stuff we don't need to hear.

One can use earplugs to sleep but I'd also like to listen to music from my iPod/iPhone without the constant buzz of the engines in the background.

I like Etymotic Research's ear canal phones because they seal well (noise-isolating) and are tiny. They also sound pretty decent.

Those so popular Bose active noise cancelation headphones require power and are too big and bulky for me. In fact, my Etymotics are so tiny, unfortunately I keep losing them.

I know: it's terrible. I've bought four pairs so far. Still got three of the boxes... only one missing is my top-of-the-line ER-4 box. There doesn't seem to be much difference (to me) between the various models sound quality-wise. They all seem a bit lightweight on the bass to me. Perhaps I never get to listen to them long enough before I lose them on trips.

The latest one I purchased are the hf3 earphones in metallic blue, which are also iPhone-compatible. (They have a microphone, volume buttons, and a center pause/play button as well that doubles as a track advance/backwards button if you can remember how many clicks you need.)

Being passive isolation earphones, in order to get a good seal, the standard earpieces require you to push them in quite far. Otherwise there is really very little bass indeed and the noise isolation doesn't work. The tradeoff therefore is one of comfort versus deep penetration.

This time around, I decided to go to an local audiologist and try custom earpiece molds since Etymotic Research has a custom-fit program. The cost is an extra $100 and a two week wait (for Etymotic Research to make the custom silicone earpieces). The benefit hopefully is better comfort and isolation. With a quietened background, this means I can play the music softer even in noisy environments. And perhaps preserve my hearing a bit longer.

Update #1: I really wasn't sure how tight they should feel. So I visited the audiologist again and she kindly immediately offered to re-do the molds for free and ask for rush delivery. (Apparently, there is a 30 day guarantee.) So in about a week or so I'll have a second pair of silicone earpieces, and I'll be able to see which ones are the most comfortable yet seal the best. I'll report back.

You need to have a mold of the inside of your ears made. The pink material looks like this:

and it comes in a pack like this:

Those white foam bits with string go in first and prevent the pink stuff from reaching your eardrum.

Injected into my ears, they take about 3 minutes to set. I know it's not the final material, but incidentally, the pink stuff happens to be a wonderful isolator. I have no clue what the audiologist is saying to me. I can't hear anything at all.

These molds are sent to Etymotic Research. And two weeks later you get the silicone versions in the mail. (You don't need to send the earphones as well to Etymotic Research.)

When the silicone pieces arrive, you can simply pop off the standard plugs and press the phones into the silicone comme ça:

This close-up shows how far the tiny phone extends into the silicone earpiece.

Here's how they fit into my ears (blue is left, red is right):

Once you wriggle those "worms" into your ear canal, the isolation is very good indeed. And the sound quality seems a bit improved. To my uneducated ears, the midrange and treble are pretty sweet. Unfortunately, I'm still not impressed with the bass. Perhaps those tiny drivers are just too small to get the weight and thump I expect from good bass. So I don't think these count as audiophile-level earphones. (They're about $160 at Best Buy.)

Because of the noise isolation, you literally are blocked off from the outside world. Rather than taking them out each time you need to hear someone, there is even a free iPhone App that allows you to pipe in the outside world when needed to your splendid isolation.

Anyway, this is my introduction to the world of custom-fit earphones. One can spend $1000+ on higher quality ear canal phones. I think I'm getting there with the number of Etymotic Research devices I've purchased so far.

Update #2

As I mentioned above, I revisited the audiologist to get new mold made. The first time around, I had some trouble wriggling the right side in. It felt too big and uncomfortably-sized after a while. And exactly a week after that, I got the new molds in. There is not much difference between the new and old left ear molds, but the new right mold was much better. It finally felt very comfortable. The difference in shape and size is clear from the picture below:

Also in my ears, the new set snuggle in a little better and results in a cleaner-looking appearance:

Unfortunately the sound remains the same. Sweet treble and midrange. No bass even compared to my car's audio system.